Following the death of their mother in a car accident, Chuck takes sister Isabelle and wife Maria to the quaint township of Ashton Falls. The move means Chuck is closer to his work, what was that again, and Isabelle is closer to her College, unfortunately it means that Maria has a two-hour commute to her fashion company, though she appears to do mostly online stuff. They rent a large house, for reasons, but soon discover it is haunted by Helen Foster, who isn’t doing a Casper. Things gradually escalate, and Chuck learns the township has a dark secret that they are going out of their way to bury, even though said secret is gradually burying Ashton Falls. Chuck and later Isabelle need to discover the location of Forest Road, which has disappeared from municipal records to try and put an end to Helen Foster before she puts an end to Chuck, Isabelle, and Maria with extreme prejudice.

There were a couple of reasons I was actually excited to go into this one, besides it being a haunted house fable for the ages. Firstly, it was surprisingly the first 2025 release viewed on site, which is kind of strange considering we are rapidly getting up to a third of the year gone already. What has happened to all the horror indie releases this year? And secondly the movie was directed and written by Stephen Cognetti, the dude behind the found footage Hell House LLC franchise, which by the by is getting a fifth instalment later this year. I was wondering how Cognetti would go making a more traditional movie, and 825 Forest Road sure did answer that question to the good. 

Behind the camera Stephen Cognetti has a firm hand, while there isn’t a whole bunch of shooting shenanigans going down the movie gets where it needs to go without trying to blind the audience with science. The most notable aspect of Cognetti’s movie, besides solid camera angles and zero fat on the bone, is the movie isn’t overly polished, with everything to do with the movie aimed at building the tension and atmosphere so many dark genre flicks fail to achieve. The comparison I would draw is to the 2009 edition of Friday the 13th in comparison to the 1980 original move. F13th circa 2009 is too professional, too polished, and this detracts from the viewer’s enjoyment of the movie. Sometimes less Hollywood spit and polish is better to keep things atmospheric. Excellent work from Cognetti to avoid overly finessing things to the point of cringe.

The narrative we are dealt isn’t exactly bringing much new to the table, and in places is likely to confuse the audience. New family with a past tragedy move into older house, strange things start to happen, some research turns up a few things that the real estate agent forgot to mention. So far so normal for your haunted manse flick, but then Cognetti decides to do something slightly different to mark his movie as standing out from the herd. Forest Road is structured in four chapters, the first three are from the individual viewpoints of the three major characters, while the fourth takes us down to Forest Road and the root of all evil. There’s a mystery to solve here, which most decent haunted house tales admittedly do throw on the table, but this one is being hidden by a township that somehow thinks things are better off being swept under the carpet. It should be noted that for once the central characters do try to get out of Dodge as the ectoplasm hits the fan.

Cognetti continues his horror tactic of simple tension filled horror techniques that serve to unnerve the viewer; doors opening themselves, lights that have a life of their own, someone dimly seen behind a character for example. But the Director adds to this with one heck of an antagonist who is apt to make an appearance in the most surprising of circumstances. Full kudos to the makeup department there, Helen Foster looks truly demented and out for scalps. Added flavouring here is a dress mannequin named Martha that I guess Maria uses for working on product. Martha has a habit of moving herself between rooms, changing stances, and otherwise seemingly having a life of her own. Things are even more freaky deaky with Martha looking like she has just finished a late night out in Rooty Hill, imagine waking up to that the next morning, gnawing off your own arm doesn’t even begin to cover it.

I did mention that the movie is apt to confuse the sometime horror viewer, and if we had to be honest those of us that have some time in country. The ending for example doesn’t really get explained, or built to, leaving viewers scratching their heads in perplexity. Similarly, how didn’t Chuck and fam get out of Dodge, maybe I was distracted or something, but they seem to go from exited stage left to staying to solve the mystery in about two shakes of a little dog’s tail. There’s more examples but I’ll leave that to the reader to discover for themselves. On the bright side of the demonic mannequin this doesn’t surprisingly distract from our enjoyment of the movie.

I was rocking to the beat Cognetti laid down with 825 Forest Road, sure do love me a haunted house tale. The dude proves you don’t have to spend a small Country’s GDP to make decent horror effects and knows how to get the best out of a very limited budget. If you are after a classic bad place tale then you are in the right place, and although somewhat confusing at stages you also get a mystery and a possible way to finish off the revenant. As such, and you knew this was coming, full recommendation on the movie, this is the sort of tucker you can dig into after starving through recent Blumhouse disasters, seriously an evil Swimming Pool, did the Asylum just buy out Blumhouse? Now I’m sweating on the upcoming Hell House LLC movie, and am slightly pleased I didn’t invest in the current box set of the franchise which is clearly going to be sans latest movie. Sorry getting distracted here, 825 Forest Road is worth your time, the movie is a breath of fresh air blowing away a zillion and one half arsed Hollywood scare flicks. Take a trip down Forest Road, the payback is going to keeping you rocking.